Chamber of Deputies Gives Natural and Legitimate Children Equal Rights

Stepchildren are a thing of the past. Italy has at last fallen into line and given natural children the same rights as legitimate offspring born within wedlock. The bill became law on its third reading in the Chamber of Deputies with 366 votes in favour, 31 against and 58 abstentions. There are 100,000 natural children in Italy, 20% of the total.

HISTORIC RESULT – “We have at last achieved an historic result for civil rights and said farewell to loathsome legislation based on an anachronistic sense of morality. I hope that this is just the first in a long series of courageous measures designed to eliminate the profound discrimination that still exists in Italy”, said Future and Freedom for Italy (FLI) spokeswoman, Giulia Bongiorno.

NEW CULTURE – “At last, after years of debate, a law marking an important point of innovation has been passed. There are no more children with an adjective attached, legitimate or natural. All children are equal. It’s a new legal culture. This is one of those steps forward that take Italy into a new age of history”, said Democratic Party (PD) senator Vittoria Franco.

ALL KIDS ARE EQUAL – According to the new law, “kinship is the bond linking people who descend from the same stock whether in the case of parenthood within marriage, where parenthood occurs outside marriage or in the case of an adopted child”. A child “born outside marriage may be recognised” by the father and mother “even if [the parents] were already joined in matrimony with another person at the time of conception” and recognition “can take place jointly or severally”. The law grants natural children a bond of kinship with all relatives and not just the parents. It follows that on the death of the parents, custody of the child can be given to the grandparents. The child need not be adopted, as is the case today. Equal status also has implications for inheritance.

CHILDREN’S RIGHTS AND DUTIES – The child has the right to be maintained, educated, instructed and morally assisted by the parents, in the respect of the child’s abilities, natural inclinations and aspirations. The child has a right to grow up in the family and to maintain meaningful relations with the parents. An under-age child who has passed his or her twelfth birthday, or younger if capable of discernment, has a right to be heard in all matters and proceedings concerning his or her person. In all articles of the civil code, the words “legitimate children” and “natural children” have been replaced by just “children”.

MANDATES TO GOVERNMENT – Revision of some of the regulations has been delegated to the government with a mandate to implement within one year. Minister Andrea Riccardi has already set up an ad hoc committee chaired by Professor Cesare Massimo Bianca which will draft the implementing provisions. One of the implementation decrees will deal with the regulation of succession and donations, for inheritance purposes. Delegated decrees will deal with proof of parenthood, with presumption of the father’s paternity, with actions for the recognition or disowning of children and with determination of suitability to adopt.

CHILDREN BORN OF INCEST – On the sensitive issue of children born to persons who are first or second-degree relatives, article 251 of the civil code has been redrafted and the margins for recognising children born of such relationships expanded. This decision provoked protests from the Christian Democrat UDC, and in particular from Paola Binetti, who claimed that “incest has been made respectable”.

COURTS TO DECIDE OVER TUG-OF-LOVE CHILDREN – Another Senate amendment lays down that where parents are in dispute, custody and maintenance proceedings will from now on be dealt with by trial courts.